The Taiping Rebellion is a history of blood and tears of peasant struggle, and Hong Xiuquan, who has tried and tried, founded the indigenous religious organization "God Worship Society" in the name of Western religion, calling on poor peasants who had lost their land to rise up and assemble a large peasant army.
However, the idea of the Taiping Rebellion was too idealistic, and did not completely get rid of the shackles of small-scale peasant thinking, let alone go beyond the economic category of feudalism, so when the ideal of the "Kingdom of Heaven" was shattered, the "Taiping" pursued by Hong Xiuquan also disappeared. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which began when Jintian died in Jinling, was finally thrown into the abyss of history.
After the fall of the Taiping Rebellion, almost all the major generals were killed by the Qing court, but some people took advantage of the chaos to escape, and Lai Hanying was one of the many "survivors". In order to avoid the pursuit and killing of the Qing soldiers, he returned to his hometown of Tanbu Lai House in Huaxian County, lived incognito to the age of 96, and once confided a shocking secret before his death, so what is this secret?
Among the many generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Lai Hanying's identity is very special, and it is precisely because of his special identity that he will win Hong Xiuquan's trust. Lai Hanying was not a pure peasant class, he had read private school for several years since he was a child, so he was quite familiar with literary and ink poetry. Later, in order to make a living, he traveled to various parts of Guangxi for a long time to do business and practice medicine.
While in Guangxi, Lai Hanying participated in the famous Jintian Uprising under the inspiration of Hong Xiuquan. Since 1852, Lai Hanying has led the Taiping Army to participate in many important battles. Later, Lai Hanying was appointed as the vanguard of the Western Expedition because of his outstanding military achievements, but because the strength of the Nanchang defenders was too strong, Lai Hanying did not conquer Nanchang.
Under these circumstances, Hong Xiuquan could only recall Lai Hanying to Tianjing and dismiss him, and transfer him to the Censorship Office to be responsible for the deletion of the Six Classics. A month later, the Qing minister Qishan led an army to besiege Yangzhou, and Lai Hanying was reactivated and went to Yangzhou to relieve the siege.
Lai Hanying led the Taiping army step by step, and after a fierce battle, he broke the Qing army's defense line and reached the city of Yangzhou. Under the command of Lai Hanying, the soldiers and civilians in Yangzhou City killed Tianjing, and after this battle, Lai Hanying's reputation was greatly shaken, and he was promoted to the rank of Shangshu of the East Hall.
As an early general of the Taiping Rebellion, Lai Hanying led and participated in many key battles, and he knew the situation inside the Taiping Rebellion very well. Especially as the wife and brother of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, the relationship between the two is even closer, so he knows the causes and consequences of the "Yang Xiuqing Annihilation Massacre" very well.
Yang Xiuqing was originally the number two real power figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, with an unruly personality, unwilling to live under people for a long time, and he often reprimanded Hong Xiuquan under the guise of "Heavenly Father". This also directly led to the contradiction between the two constantly sharpening, Hong Xiuquan's hardcore followers, hated Yang Xiuqing who did wrongdoing, and they wanted to kill him quickly.
Under the influence of this tense situation, Yang Xiuqing's repeated aggressiveness made Hong Xiuquan unbearable, and when Yang Xiuqing forced Hong Xiuquan to change the title of "nine thousand years old" to "long live", Hong Xiuquan could not bear it anymore and secretly ordered Wei Changhui, Qin Rigang, and Shi Da Kaiqin Wang.
Wei Changhui, who had long held a grudge against Yang Xiuqing, seemed to have grasped the magic weapon that brought down Yang Xiuqing. As Yang Xiuqing's subordinate, he has long been unbearable to Yang Xiuqing's arrogance.
Under the personal leadership of Wei Changhui, Yang Xiuqing's entire family and his guards, as many as 30,000 people, died in the "Tianjing Incident". And the careerist Wei Changhui, after getting rid of Yang Xiuqing, actually wanted to follow in his footsteps, and was finally killed by Hong Xiuquan's order. Qin Rigang also ended up in a different position, and the disheartened Shi Dakai led the troops to leave.
In this unexplained infighting, many people believe that Hong Xiuquan single-handedly planned the tragedy. But before his death, Lai Hanying revealed a shocking secret, that is, Wei Changhui was the mastermind behind the Yang Xiuqing Annihilation Gate Massacre.
There is a recognized view in the historians: "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not chaotic, and Wei Changhui has the final say." In short, "Chengye Wei Changhui, defeat also Wei Changhui", as an ambitious person, he is the same as Yang Xiuqing in his bones, they are all a mountain raccoon. Hong Xiuquan secretly commanded him King Qin, just to suppress Yang Xiuqing's arrogance.
However, Wei Changhui, who has a personal grudge with Yang Xiuqing, after receiving Hong Xiuquan's secret edict, privately killed Yang Xiuqing, and this kind of fake public and private practice is completely a personal act, and to put it bluntly, it has nothing to do with Hong Xiuquan. But because of the entanglement between Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing, people will think that he gave the killing order.